Roaming Sparrow

My bus rolled into Siem Reap at something like 4:30 in the morning, well before sunrise, and dumped me on a dark street with nowhere to be. That’s the one thing nobody tells you about doing Phnom Penh to Siem Reap on the overnight sleeper: you save a night’s hotel, but you arrive at an hour when the only thing open is your own jet-lagged confusion. I’d prearr...

I watched a few people in shorts get politely refused at the staircase to the top of Angkor Wat, turned back down in front of everyone after waiting in line. That’s the moment the Angkor Wat dress code stops being a vague suggestion in a guidebook and becomes a very real gate between you and the best view of the day. The rules aren’t complicated, but they are...

Here’s the most common Siem Reap regret, and I hear it constantly: “I only gave it one day and felt rushed.” I did exactly one day at the temples myself, and while it was enough to see the headliners, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t cooked and cutting corners by early afternoon. So how many days in Siem Reap do you actually need? The honest answer depends on ...

I visited Angkor Wat in the cool season — supposedly easy mode — and the midday heat still cooked me into a half-nap on a café couch by 1 p.m. That’s worth knowing before you book, because the best time to visit Angkor Wat isn’t really about the temples. They’ve stood for 900 years and aren’t going anywhere. It’s about the weather you’ll be dragging your body...

Most people pick a Siem Reap hotel by sorting a booking site by price and clicking the cheapest thing with a pool. Then they land and realize they’re a sweaty 25-minute walk from anything, or stuck above a Pub Street bar that doesn’t quit until 2 a.m. I live here, so I watch this happen on repeat. The truth about where to stay in Siem Reap is that the town is...